


orbitober 2019 - drabbles

by orphan_account



Series: my fics [10]
Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Drabble Collection, Gen, Minor Character Death, but they're connected bc why not, chaos babies: gay rights, give yerim a hug, happy spook month, like i made my own loonaverse ig, lipsoul: dramatic bitch rights, mentioned: rest of yyxy, pet fish, those tags are connected in exactly the way you think they are, vaguely loonaverse-inspired but not rlly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-10 14:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: every day in october, i'll be posting a drabble- 100-1100 words i GUESS they might be longer depending on the day and the prompt- fororbitober2019! the drabbles are all connected and it'll eventually end up being a complete story so prepare for a long-ass rideNOTE: this is unfinished and will remain so!





	1. day one- crescent

**Author's Note:**

> this is exactly what it says on the tin lmao

For all Chaewon’s faults, Yerim doesn’t think curiosity is a particularly big problem. Sure, it can be annoying- sure, a lot of people won’t like Chaewon’s incessant nosiness. But it’s never really affected Yerim, so she hasn’t really cared about Chaewon’s tendency to poke her nose where it might not belong.

Until now, anyway.

Yerim’s always been sensitive about her eye. It’s not really a secret. When she was younger, she’d been teased mercilessly for it- no kindergartener wants to talk to the girl with a crescent moon shining in one of her eyes, violet in the right light. Now that she’s sixteen and she has two best friends who know not to bother her about it, she hasn’t really thought about it in years. It’s just there, and everyone knows it.

But no. Chaewon had to get curious.

Yerim sighs. “Honestly, Chae, I don’t know. It’s just… always been there.”

Chaewon flips her blond hair over her shoulder. Yerim’s eyes follow the glint of platinum. She doesn’t think her friend would hurt her, but she’s still sore from the questions from her childhood. “I believe you,” she says. “I just have this weird feeling… like something’s about to happen.”

“You have those once a week,” Yerim argues. “You went through that Ghostbusters phase, remember? And the vampire slayer one?”

Chaewon pauses. “I… can’t deny that. But look, Yerim, life is boring and wouldn’t it be cool if you could find something out about your eye? You might have superpowers.”

“I,” Yerim says decisively, “do not have superpowers.”

“But you _ might _,” Chaewon says, tickling Yerim on the arm. The three of them were meant to study together, but Yeojin had been busy with something or another and it’s just the two of them. Yerim ignores the weird fizzy feeling she gets when she’s alone with Chaewon and focuses on the matter at hand- the tickling.

She debates whether to tickle Chaewon back or dodge, but the laughs overcome her before she can decide. “I- don’t- have- superpowers-” She bursts into another bout of laughter. It’s hard to say no to Chaewon. “But I guess we can- check anyway?”

Chaewon grins and stops her tickle assault. “Yay!”

When she smiles like that, Yerim forgets some of her regrets.

-

Yerim sneezes. She wonders if she’s allergic to dust. They’re looking in some old corner of the library labeled _ New Age and the Occult _ that Yerim never knew existed until now. 

Yerim pokes aside a book about the healing powers of apples. “Chaewon, I don’t think we’re going to find anything useful here.” 

Chaewon, engrossed in a book about exorcising demons, shrugs. “It’s interesting, though.”

_ Speak for yourself, _ Yerim thinks, but she smiles fondly at Chaewon instead. “I’m glad you found something you like, at least.”

Chaewon looks up from the book. “Huh? Oh, yeah, me too.” She seems distracted today. Yerim’s glad that she’s not the only one. “Why don’t we just look at the end of this aisle?”

“Okay,” Yerim says. “Then can we go get bubble tea?”

Chaewon nods, puts the book back, and grins at Yerim. “Good plan.”

Yerim is starting to think that there’s nothing here until she notices a book on her side of the aisle labeled _ Magical Deformities and Mutations. _ “Chaewon, I found something,” she calls, and her friend immediately runs to her side.

“Open it, open it!” Chaewon chants. “This is a sign.”

“It’s probably just a normal book,” Yerim says, but overwhelmed with curiosity, she opens the book.

But it’s not a book.

The inside is hollowed out, and inside are two items: a plastic bag with a blue betta fish, swimming in the thin water inside, and a single rusty-red feather.

Yerim feels a chill run down her spine. “Weird.”

“Yeah,” Chaewon agrees. “We should take care of the fish. It’s going to run out of water soon.”

Yerim picks up the fish and looks at it- it looks back. For a moment, she thinks she sees a flash of moonlight in its eyes. “Poor thing. It’s going to be okay, we’ll help you,” she cooes at it. “Isn’t that right, Blue?”

Chaewon snorts. “ _ Blue _? Creative, Yerim.” She’s smiling, though. “Hi, little guy,” she says to the fish. “Let’s go home.”

-

Yerim is in her room long after Chaewon has left, sprinkling fish food into the bowl she’s hastily converted into a fish habitat. Someone knocks at the door, and Yerim tugs off her headphones. A strange song had just come up on shuffle, and it’s giving her deja vu- _ I wonder what love is, A to Z I still don’t know, _croons the singer’s familiar voice. “Hello?” she asks, opening the door for her mom. “What is it?”

Her mother’s face is solemn, and that same chill that earlier ran down Yerim’s spine drips down to her legs, her toes, seeping into the ground to sprout something that in her imagination is a cherry tree. “Yerim,” she says, “Yeojin is missing.”

For a moment, before the shock hits her, Yerim turns around. Blue, just fine a moment earlier, lies belly-up in his new bowl. Dead.


	2. day two - demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> day two - demon  
in which a new player enters and yerim needs a hug

Chaewon only barely manages to drag herself out of bed in the morning. She has a horrible headache and her eyes feel strangely dry. She doesn’t want to go to school, but she knows her mother will make her. (She wonders briefly if Yerim and Yeojin will care if she skips a class or two, but then she remembers- it’s just Yerim, and without Yeojin, Yerim isn’t likely to care about much at all.)

Yeojin.

Yeojin, Yeojin, Yeojin.

-

Yerim’s eyes are suspiciously bright, crescent twinkling, when she confronts Chaewon outside of school. Maybe too bright for the day after her best friend had vanished. “Chaewon,” she says, not giving her friend any time to respond, “Chae, there’s a new kid.” Yerim points to a girl lurking in the corner of the courtyard, hood pulled over her head. “She just moved in, she doesn’t seem to have any family, and it’s the day after Yeojin went missing. Coincidence? I think not.” For someone who’d been criticizing Chaewon’s tendency to get obsessed with conspiracy theories, Yerim is very animated today. Chaewon suspects that Yerim is just ignoring her stronger feelings about Yeojin’s disappearance in favor of feeling like she can do something, which is understandable, if a little confusing.

Chaewon looks at the girl again. She’s tall, and Chaewon catches a glimpse of black hair from under her hoodie. There’s something about her that feels… not off, maybe, but familiar. Like she’s calling to Chaewon from a memory she’s erased until now.

“Yeah,” Chaewon says absently, “yeah, maybe we should talk to her.”

Yerim says something about interrogation at lunch, but Chaewon isn’t listening. She looks at the girl and tries to _ remember. _

-

School is, at first, boring.

Chaewon has the new girl in her first class. She introduces herself as “O- _ Hyejoo.” _ She looks directly at Chaewon, who almost flinches. What was Hyejoo about to say?   
Yerim is in her next class, Math, and seems distracted. Chaewon wonders if the shock is hitting her, because it’s definitely hitting Chaewon. Where’s Yeojin? What the hell happened to her? It makes it hard to focus on algebra.

And then there’s lunch.

Yerim immediately targets Hyejoo, who’s fending off some curious kids trying to say hello to her. “Son Hyejoo,” she says, and Chaewon doesn’t even _ want _ to know where Yerim got her last name from, “Follow us. We have questions to ask you.”

Hyejoo looks caught between confusion and awe. She looks at Chaewon, not Yerim, despite her silence. “Okay,” she says softly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but okay.”

Yerim leads them to the art room, empty during lunchtime. After closing the door and perching on a desk, she glares at Hyejoo. “What did you do to Yeojin?”

Hyejoo just looks confused. “Yeojin? Who are you talking about?”

“Our best _ friend _ ,” Yerim says, and Chaewon begins to think that if she should ever die, her friend would handle it very, very badly. “She vanished and you’re here. What did you- what did you _ do _ to her?”

"Yerim,” Chaewon starts, “maybe we should-”

Yerim ignores her. “I know there has to be a reason that she’s gone and we have you instead- we didn’t ask for- I just want Yeojin back!”

Hyejoo looks even more confused. “I can help you two find her, but I don’t know Yeojin. I just moved here.”

Yerim hiccups. She looks on the edge of tears. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I just-”

“I get it,” Chaewon says gently. “I miss her too. And we’ll find her. Even if we have to raid Area 51 again.”

Yerim latches onto Chaewon with surprising ferocity, and Chaewon automatically puts her arms around her friend. She smells like cherry candy. “I should go,” she says. “I don’t think I’m helping anyone here.”

“I’ll talk to Hyejoo and then find you,” Chaewon volunteers, momentarily forgetting that they’re not the only ones in the room. “Maybe she’ll appreciate a friend.”

Yerim nods. “Okay. I’m going to go- clean up. I guess.” Chaewon’s friend is a mess, tears coating her face. Chaewon had done most of her crying in silence last night, and her heart aches for Yerim.

But when she’s gone, she remembers Hyejoo. “I’m sorry about-” Chaewon starts, but Hyejoo interrupts.

“Go Won?”

Her voice is achingly soft, and Chaewon feels horrible for her without knowing why. “No,” she says, “my name is Chaewon.”

“Oh,” says Hyejoo quietly. “I’m sorry, I just- I knew someone who looked like you. Her name was Go Won.”

Chaewon feels a chill run down her spine. “In your old town?” she asks, knowing the answer.

Hyejoo shakes her head. “Can I trust you?”

“Yes,” Chaewon says without pause. “Something is going on, and I need to know what it is.”

Hyejoo smiles, bittersweet. “Me too.” She pauses. “Not in my old town. In my old world.” Chaewon nods at her to continue, numb, and Hyejoo does. “It was called Eden- or my part of it was, anyway. There was someone named Go Won there. She was my best friend… and then she left to Earth. So that’s why I thought she was you.”

Chaewon nods, somehow unsurprised. With all the strange things going on, the idea that there could be an alternate Chaewon doesn’t sound too strange. “Do you think- do you think it’s possible that Yeojin could have gotten sucked into your world?”

Hyejoo considers it for a moment, and then she nods. “Yeah. That would make sense. I can… try to find out if she’s there.”

“How can you do that without travelling back and messing things up even more?” Chaewon asks.

Hyejoo pauses. “What if I told you that I was a demon and that contacting people in other worlds was a demonic ability?”

“I’d believe you,” Chaewon says. “With everything else going on… also I’ve always been superstitious.”

Hyejoo squints. “You look about to faint. I don’t think you’re handling this as well as you think you are.”

“Yeah, maybe not,” Chaewon manages to push out before the world goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what time zone are yall on i see people posting day 3 and it's only 5pm on the 2nd for me?? wild


	3. day three- pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which hyejoo broods for the sin meaning of pride and chaos ensues for the gay meaning of pride

Hyejoo dreams about Eden.

In the dream, everything is peaceful as it had once been- Yves teases Chuu, whose cheeks go bright red, and Go Won beats her at some card game, crying triumph. Hyejoo doesn’t mind. It’s worth it to be with her friends.

Then the clouds come down. She sees Yves, bold, offer Chuu a caramel apple- she sees Chuu, hesitant, bite down. She sees Yves’s lips dripping with caramel. She sees Go Won watch them vanish into the shadows, sees her best friend look back at her just once before finding her own apple, biting down.

She sees a plum roll to her feet.

Hyejoo has a lot of wishes that will never come true. She wishes that she’d stayed with her friends. She wishes that they’d never argued. She wishes that they’d trusted her enough to whisper their real names to her, the way she’d once told Go Won- in the cover of night when their caretaker was not watching, gilded arches above the only witness.

_ Hyejoo, _ she’d murmured softly, Go Won’s dark hair tickling her nose. _ My name is Hyejoo. _

There had been no reply.

-

But this is not Eden. This is Earth. Not the Earth she always thought she’d return to, with Yves and Chuu and Go Won waiting for her, saying _ welcome back, we missed you, we’re sorry _, but a new Earth, with a crying, crescent-eyed Yerim haunting her every thought and a golden-haired clone of Go Won- Chaewon, her name was Chaewon- talking about a missing girl, nearly fainting next to Hyejoo.

She considers picking up her phone. Yves is on speed dial.

She doesn’t.

It’s pride, Hyejoo considers- pride that stopped her from following her friends, pride that stops her from doing this one little thing to help determined Chaewon and pretty purple-haired Yerim, who just want their friend back. Pride that stops her from doing the right thing.

Because the truth is? She’s scared. Scared that whatever happened to Yeojin really has nothing to do with the two worlds that she inhabits, scared that she can’t help them and that she’ll lose the chance to make friends here. To belong here.

But if she does nothing… all of her chances are gone.

Hyejoo unlocks her phone and scrolls down to Yves’ contact. There’s an apple and a burgundy heart next to her name- that had been how her former friend had saved herself, and Hyejoo had never had the heart to change it.

She takes a deep breath and presses call. Yves picks up almost immediately.

“Hello?”

-

“Chaewon?”

“Chaewon, it’s Yerim.”

“Hyejoo’s missing, too.”

“Chaewon? Please pick up.”

-

A masked figure watches the city from above, brown hair blowing dramatically in the wind. A feather soars through the air and lands on her hand- a feather that had, just a day ago, been lingering in a false book.

Someone taps her on the shoulder. They’re carrying a plastic bag with a dead fish inside. “Lip?”

The first figure wrinkles her nose. “You didn’t need to bring the fish. It stinks.”

The fish-carrier shrugs. “Hey, it’ll prove a point.”

“Yeah,” ‘Lip’ says, looking out to the horizon. “I guess.” She pauses. “She’s here. I can feel it.”

The other inhales the scent of sunset and dead fish. “Our time has come.”

**bonus scene with the other meaning of pride: one year ago**

Yeojin shrieks and waves her flag in the air. Yerim isn’t entirely sure what her friend is trying to say, but she laughs, too. “Happy pride!” Chaewon yells from the other side of her. Their town doesn’t have a parade because it’s too small, so instead Yeojin, Yerim, and Chaewon are Naruto running/biking/skating, respectively, down the sidewalk with confetti and pride flags, because the gayness must be spread.

Yerim’s not sure why she agreed to this, but it’s surprisingly fun. “DO YOU WANT TO GO GET BUBBLE TEA,” she yells over the sound of Yeojin blasting some song she’s never heard.

“ONLY IF WE GET RAINBOW JELLY!” Chaewon bellows back.

“I hate rainbow jelly,” says Yeojin, not yelling- Yerim thinks, anyway. Yeojin’s regular voice is just yelling, so it’s kind of hard to tell. “Can I get pudding instead?”

“Not if you get lemonade with it again,” Yerim says, surreptitiously turning down the volume on the speaker in her basket. “That’s just gross.”

“Don’t knock it until you try it,” Yeojin chirps, retaliating by turning up the volume on her own phone. _ TAKE MY HEART- SURELY YOU’RE MY DESTINY, _the singer blares. It’s not bad, overall, just… loud. Yerim is pretty sure she sees Chaeyoung, Yeojin’s old babysitter, peeking out of her window and giving them a thumbs-up. The other neighbors, surely, won’t be too happy about the music.

Chaewon pokes Yerim in the shoulder. “Hey, enjoy the chaos. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Yerim lets herself stop worrying about everything just a little bit. She could live forever in this moment, with her wonderful best friends at her side and the promise of tea on the horizon. 

(She won’t. But that’s okay, too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> which kind of pride are you i'm both


	4. day four - magical girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which everyone around yerim is really dramatic and a lot of things vanish

Chaewon calls Yerim first thing in the morning. “I’m sorry, I fell asleep,” she says. “Did Hyejoo really vanish? How do you know?”

“We’re neighbors,” Yerim tells Chaewon distractedly. “Her mom came over to our house and asked about her halfway through dinner. Says the window and door of Hyejoo’s room are closed and her phone was still ringing on her bed.”

Chaewon grunts. “That’s… weird.” There’s a little scuffle from the other side of the phone, until Chaewon says, confused, “The call log says you called me at 6:15. Doesn’t your mom insist on always having dinner at 6:30 on the dot?”

Yerim’s breath catches in her throat, because Chaewon is right. Looking back on it, she doesn’t even remember calling Chaewon. “That,” she says, “is very, very odd.”

The scuffle from Chaewon’s side of the call increases. “Give me a minute,” Yerim’s friend says. “I’ll call back,” she adds, and hangs up.

Yerim is used to Chaewon’s spontaneous bursts of genius by now, the kind that require she hang up on every call, and just finishes getting dressed. She tries to think of something else she could do. Maybe she should flush Blue, poor thing. Yeojin’s disappearance had distracted her too much to do anything with the fish. 

But when she looks in the fish bowl, they aren’t there.

Odd.

Yerim doesn’t have the time to ponder this, because there’s a faint tapping at her window. She walks over and sees Chaewon, clinging to the tree outside Yerim’s window for dear life. 

She rolls her eyes and opens the window. Her best friend clambers in without much grace. “Thanks,” Chaewon pants. “I wanted to show you something.”

“What?” Yerim says, confused. “Does your mom even know you’re out of the house?”

“Probably too busy gossiping about all these disappearances,” Chaewon says flippantly. She pulls a phone that isn’t hers out of her pocket. “You said Hyejoo’s phone was still ringing, right?”

“Park Chaewon, did you just steal Hyejoo’s phone?” Yerim says, scandalized.

“I’ll give it back,” Chaewon reassures. “It could have clues.”

Yerim gives in. “Okay, okay. But does it have clues?”

“I don’t know,” Chaewon says, opening the phone. “She doesn’t have a passcode, which is weird.” Mumbling something that sounds vaguely like “she must not be used to Earth phones yet”, Chaewon scrolls to the call log. 

Yerim gets the distinct sense that Chaewon is hiding something from her, but lets it go for now in favor of looking over her shoulder at Hyejoo’s phone. The most recent call is outgoing, to someone named _ yves~ _🍎❤. It’s listed as being unanswered. “Huh,” says Yerim, and Chaewon nods in agreement.

“I wonder what happens if-” Chaewon starts, ready to press call. 

Yerim snatches the phone away from her just in time. “That’s the last thing Hyejoo did before she vanished! I don’t want you to vanish, too.”

“I won’t vanish,” Chaewon says, reaching for the phone. Yerim dances away from her, but Chaewon gives chase. “Give it!”

“No!” yelps Yerim, arms outstretched. Chaewon bumps into her, and the phone goes flying out of the window.

There’s a small pause where both of them watch as the phone tumbles down. Just before it hits the ground, there’s a little flash of light and it vanishes into thin air.

Yerim resists the urge to say _ I told you so._

-

Yerim mopes through the rest of the day- it’s Saturday, so there’s no school, and her mom had promptly banished Chaewon after breakfast- without anything interesting happening. She’s just about to go to bed and declare the day over when a girl appears in her room.

Yerim blinks at the girl. She’s blonde and she’s wearing blue.

The girl blinks at Yerim.

Yerim starts to scream, but the girl quickly puts a hand over her mouth. This close to Yerim, she can see that the other has a shining blue crescent in one of her eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you,” she whispers.

Yerim stops trying to scream and wrenches her face free. “Given that I was just finishing this painting when you appeared _ out of nowhere _ , I think screaming is an appropriate reaction.”

“I teleported,” the girl says indignantly, but collects herself. “You’re… Choerry?”

“Yerim,” she corrects automatically, but then stiffens. “What’s it to you?”

She points at her eye. “I’m like you, kid.”

“Yes, I noticed,” Yerim snaps. 

“And,” the girl continues without much patience, “I’m from an alternate dimension. With my friend, who’s also got the odd eye. We were looking for you. You’re the only one we need to complete the trio.”

Yerim is about to dismiss the girl as a stoner, but she pauses. She did just see a phone vanish in front of her eyes, and also maybe predict the future, so it’s not _ that _ implausible. “What’s your name, then?”

“Jinsol,” she chirps, relaxing. “Nice to meet you.”

Yerim regards her skeptically. “Can I meet your friend?”

“Sure,” says Jinsol, putting a hand on Yerim’s arm, and suddenly they’re somewhere _ else _ and oh man, it’s cold. 

“What the heck?” Yerim hollers. “Where are we?” Looking around, it’s pretty easy to see that they’re on a rooftop, but ‘where are we’ felt like an appropriate reaction nonetheless.

An unfamiliar voice from behind her snorts. “What the heck? I’d use some stronger language if I were you, Choerry.”

That name again. “Her name is Yerim,” Jinsol volunteers. “Say hi to Jungeun.” 

Yerim turns around. Jungeun has brown hair and she’s holding a familiar feather. “Hey! I found that feather in a library book a day ago.”

“It’s mine,” Jungeun says. “We’ve each got an animal that represents us and in every world, there’s some kind of-” She pauses when she sees Yerim’s mouth hanging open. “Do you not know _ anything_?”

“Nope,” says Yerim weakly. “Why did the fish die?”

Jinsol produces a plastic bag with the fish in it from nowhere. “Actually…” She waves her fingers and the fish begins to move, at first listlessly and then energetically. She opens the bag, and much to Yerim’s surprise, the fish _ flies _ . It swims up into the air and out of sight. Jinsol winks. “Maybe it didn’t die.”

Just to spite Jungeun, Yerim says, “What the fuck?”

Jungeun does very unenthusiastic jazz hands. “Odd eye magic.”

“... yeah, I can see that,” Yerim mutters. “Can I do that too?”

Jinsol inspects Yerim’s eye rather unsubtly. “I mean, your eye isn’t awakened yet. And you haven’t had any training. But otherwise, probably.”

Yerim resists the urge to whisper _ cool _ . “How do I wake up my eye, then?”

Jinsol pauses. “I… have an idea. Do you trust me?”

Yerim isn’t sure who it’s addressed to. She’s not sure why the question is being asked. But before she can think about it, the word “yes” slips out of her mouth. It feels weirdly familiar, standing on a rooftop with Jinsol and Jungeun- like she’s known them all her life. Like they belong in the same place. “Just as long as you don’t teleport me again,” Yerim adds quickly, just so she doesn’t seem too desperate. “And I get to go home soon.”

Jinsol smiles a flicker of a smile. “No worries.”

Jungeun smiles brighter, though. “It’s nice to meet you, Yerim.” Maybe she isn’t too bad after all.

Wordlessly, Jinsol and Jungeun stand next to Yerim, one of them gripping one of her hands each until they’re in a circle facing outwards. _ Odd eye circle, _Yerim thinks dizzily, a pressure building behind her left eye. She’s not really sure where she got the thought from. It’s not pain, exactly, more like the feeling when you’re on the verge of crying. About to let something go.

Yerim lets herself tips over the edge.

Lets herself be free.

-

There’s a blank space where Yerim had been, and a fruit bat begins to fall to the ground in her place. Jungeun catches it before it hits the ground, and frowns. “Hello? Yerim?”

The bat chirps weakly. “It’s not her,” Jinsol volunteers. “I can feel it.”

“Oh,” says Jungeun. There’s a small silence before she adds, “... oops?”

“She left her jacket,” Jinsol says, picking up the purple coat. “I wonder if she has a friend we can tell.”

Jungeun fishes a phone out of the coat’s pocket and squints at the most recent text. “Hmm,” she says. “We can save her. I know it.”

-

It’s late, and Chaewon is about to go to bed when a text from an unknown number pops up on her screen.

_ We need to talk. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited for formatting i didn't need to put that note there huh  
also this one got away with me a lil bit oops


	5. day five - sloth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which chaewon wants to sleep and so do i

Chaewon blinks lazily at the screen.  _ Who’s this?  _ she texts back.  _ I think you have the wrong number. _

The unknown number replies immediately.  _ This is Chaewon, right? Yerim’s friend? I was with her and she’s gone. I got your number from her phone. _

Helpful.  _ If you really have my number because of Yerim, why aren’t you texting from her phone? _

_ My friend broke it. We need to help her. _

_ Prove that you’re someone I want to help. You could be some random creep. _

There’s a pause. Then a picture pops up on Yerim’s screen. In it, a brown-haired girl stands on a rooftop. Some unknown other party is giving her bunny ears from behind. The striking thing, though, is her eyes. They’re dark, with a sliver of red crescent inside.  _ Good enough? My name is Jungeun. I was teaching Yerim how to use her powers. _

Chaewon pauses. She shouldn’t just trust random people.  _ maybe in the morning,  _ she texts.  _ I don’t want to go anywhere with strangers. _

_ Even for Yerim?  _

Chaewon is already asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry for the short chapter aa, i was really busy today and also sick so i couldn't do much  
but! tomorrow will be better!!


	6. day six - mythology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which i fulfill my weekly quota of purple prose

Once upon a time, the universe woke up.

-

There were two of them in the beginning. Two rival gods without names who never wanted to rule together. 

The only thing they could agree on? There needed to be something to watch over. Something besides two faces in an endless abyss who had nothing to do but hate.

But oh, they argued.

_ The world should be perfect,  _ said one.  _ We should build a glittering monstrosity of metal, ice, and music where everyone knows that they should sculpt themselves to be perfect as well. _

_ Let them make mistakes,  _ said the other.  _ Let them breathe and run around in the sunlight. If they choose to destroy everything, we can just build it all over again. _

They could not agree to compromise, so they decided to be selfish.

_ Each of us will make a world,  _ they decided.  _ Like two sheets of paper, they’ll never overlap. They’ll have their own night skies and their own names for the monsters in the corners of their minds, and they will never know of the other’s existence. _

So they created.

Earth was the world of the imperfect. Its oceans glistened with beautiful, poisonous beasts that the humans running around on the mountains of the land would never discover, a burning desire to thrive at all costs emanating from the magma at its core. Eden, however, was the world of the polished and perfect. It had no oceans, no trees, nothing that was not carved from pure diamond, and the people were shaped to be perfectly symmetrical and happy as well, and if they ever noticed that the ground at their feet was not dirt but shimmering copper, what were they going to do about it?

And for millennia, everything was okay. Secretly, both deities hoped that one world would succeed more obviously than the other, that one of their plans would succeed and the other would fail. But they were equal in flaws and equal in successes, and both gods were dissatisfied.

Then one day, they both noticed something. There was something between their worlds, something fluid and magical, something with colors more vivid than both places put together. And someone had created it.

Thus emerged the third deity, the deity of the space between. This deity was born from the hopes of the humans for there to be _ something else  _ out there, something different. This world leaked into both Earth and Eden, provided a passageway between them if you knew where to look. It provided just a sprinkle of extra color, extra glitter.

It was beautiful. It was lonely.

(So was she.)

-

Once upon a time, the resentment simmering between the two rival deities boiled over. They would fight, no matter how much their little sister begged them not to. One world would triumph, and if that meant that the space between would be destroyed, what did it matter?

They were too old to know how to take physical form, so they chose champions. They looked at the futures that the eight had in store and considered them worthy of sacrificing for their masters.

Earth chose four. One was young, bright, and cheerful who could overcome nearly anything if she wanted it enough. One was filled with sunshine, too, but worried that light would go out and that her friends would be lost in the dark. One was intelligent, unafraid to break rules, and fiercely devoted to whatever cause she chose.

One was missing.

Eden chose four. One was beautiful, whether or not the world around her saw it, and fierce in her own silent way. One was peaceful, wanting nothing more than to live their life with those they loved, willing to fight for the opportunity. One was adored by all and adored all, cheerful and friendly to you no matter who you were, but still alone. 

One ran into the dark and did not come back. 

And the space between considered.

-

It started with realizing that time had bent from the existence of multiple worlds at once. The space between realized that there were ghostly copies of Earth and Eden that had been created by something else, something strangely human. And they were happy, happier than the worlds governed by some god or another.

It started with seeing a strangely familiar face in their world. The face of a girl who seemed both lost and not, both stressed and at rest. The face of a girl who created more color in the impossibly bright world with every step.

And then there were two.

It started with a need to free the other champions from the gods. To save human beings from being used as swords.

So the space between fought.

She pierced holes between the imaginary and the real, between Earth, Eden, and the space between. 

There would be an endless void awaiting any who fell in these holes, but the deity was kind. She caught all the unlucky wanderers.

-

Three minus one is two, plus one is three again. Rewind time, fall in an inconsistency, and you’re left at two; join hands with a fellow lost soul and there’s just one left.

A blue butterfly flaps its wings. There’s an urgent countdown to zero.

-

Once upon a time, Chaewon woke up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you're confused


	7. day seven - envy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which our favorite frog is back

Yeojin wakes up.

The last thing she remembers is sneaking out of her house to meet up with Chaewon and Yerim. Her mother hadn’t wanted her to do anything besides homework, but she’d already finished it and had been terribly bored. So she’d slipped out and walked into the forest, hoping she’d find her friends there.

And then… blackness.

So here she is in a forest, but it’s not the forest she knows. The foliage is a million colors of spring, green the color of a lime or a lake adorning the trees, which are, somehow, the brightest brown she’s ever seen. In the distance, she hears the rushing murmur of a waterfall and the chirps of birds. At home, the forest is almost entirely painted in shades of beige, and you can’t take a step without running into undergrowth- but here, it’s bright and there’s room to move, room to breathe.

It’s beautiful, and Yeojin would probably appreciate it more if she knew how the fuck she got here.

She decides that she has a few options. Option one is just to stay here and pretend to be unconscious- if she has a captor, maybe they’ll reveal something without knowing that she can hear them. Option two is to run as far away as she can before any captor she might have sees her, with no care for direction. 

Option three is to scream and see what it attracts.

Yeojin, being Yeojin, chooses this one.

The forest is silent for a minute but for the burble of water, all the birds scared into silence. Then there’s the distinctive crunch of feet on leaves. “Hello?” a soft voice calls. “Anyone there?”

“I’m right here,” Yeojin hollers. “Some help would be appreciated.”

A girl slowly comes into view. She has long black hair and a cat balancing precariously on her shoulder. “Oh! Hi. What’s your name?”

“I’m not telling you that,” Yeojin says, sitting up and crossing her arms. “You could be the one who kidnapped me and brought you here.”

The girl laughs. “I assure you that I very much did not kidnap you,” she says. “I’m Hyunjin. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Do you know who did kidnap me, then?” Yeojin asks skeptically.

“Nobody kidnapped you,” Hyunjin says, offering an arm to help Yeojin up. Yeojin squints at it for a minute, but accepts. “You’re just in another world.”

Yeojin blinks. “I’m… where now? Is this just the land of the dead?”

“No,” says Hyunjin, losing patience. “This is the space between worlds, and you’re probably here because the deity of this space saved you from being a tool to the deity of whatever world you came from. Earth, right?”

Yeojin raises an eyebrow. “Riiiight. Prove it.”

Hyunjin rolls her eyes. The cat jumps off her shoulder and drops something- a letter- at Yeojin’s feet that almost certainly hadn’t been there before. She opens it, and sees a video projected onto paper. It’s her- walking through the forest, looking for her friends. The air around her begins to ripple, and there’s a sudden flash of glowing light. Yeojin vanishes. 

The scene cuts to darkness- somebody,  _ her _ , floating through the air with arms up to catch herself. There’s a light from below which slowly envelops her, until the screen is filled with brightness. When the light clears, Yeojin sees this familiar forest projected from above- empty, peaceful.

There’s a flash of light, and her unconscious body appears.

The video vanishes, until the paper is blank but for the faint outline of a cat head. 

Yeojin blinks at the paper. Hyunjin watches her expectantly.

“I believe you,” she admits. “Where can I talk to this deity? I want to go home.”

Hyunjin shakes her head. “You can’t. The deity of Earth isn’t going to let you go again, and you’ll have to go to whatever war they want you to fight. If it’s any consolation, your friends should be coming soon.”

Yeojin stares at Hyunjin helplessly. “Nothing? There’s nothing I can do to leave safely?”

The cat purrs and rubs against her legs. “The cat can travel between worlds, and I can see through its eyes and control it. I can take a message to one of your friends.”

“It’s okay,” Yeojin says automatically. “If they’re coming anyway, and I can’t see them myself, there’s no point.” A burning feeling of jealousy stirs in her stomach. She wants to be able to do what Hyunjin can- to travel to her friends and reassure them that she’s all right.

But she can’t.

-

Hyunjin leads her to a little cottage in the woods. Yeojin estimates that the girl is a little bit older than her, but when she asks, Hyunjin shakes her head. “I’ve lived here for a while,” she says. “I just entered the forest when I was eighteen and didn’t age from there.”

(Yeojin wonders if this means that she’ll never be old enough to drive.)

The cottage, as with everything else, is cozy and small. A fire roars in the fireplace and the cabinets are smooth and polished. Yeojin sees two bedrooms, one with a cat and rabbit engraved on it and another with a frog. Hyunjin says that “the cottage adjusts itself to your needs,” and that when other people arrive, there’ll be more rooms. Yeojin peers down the hallway and sees nothing but emptiness, stretching on for a long time- she wonders if the doors will just appear for other people.

Hyunjin makes her tea, which is very kind, although the tea could definitely use sugar that the cabinets do not seem to have, and lets her shower, but Yeojin still feels restless. She pretends to sleep, but when Hyunjin’s entered the cat-and-rabbit room, she slips out a window that she could have sworn wasn’t there before. She’s right back where she started- sneaking out into a forest, looking for a familiar face.

The forest is different at night. The moon is maybe a quarter full, but it offers enough light for Yeojin to find her way. Almost automatically, she follows the sound of water until she reaches a small clearing. A waterfall spills from an unseen river above, crashing into a small pool filled with lily pads. A bullfrog croaks, and Yeojin sits down on a rock, careful not to be hit by the silver spray.

She gets the distinct feeling that she’s being watched, and turns around. A girl who looks both similar and different, somehow, from Hyunjin is standing at the edge of the grove, watching her. Before Yeojin can scream, the girl walks up to the pool and sits next to her. “I’m Heejin,” she says. “I live with Hyunjin, but I was gathering food today. You’re Yeojin?”

“Yeah,” Yeojin says, closing her mouth before the shriek erupts. “Do you know how to leave?”

Heejin shakes her head, a flash of something dark in her eyes. “You can leave if you really want to, but it’s not recommended. Your friends are safe and you’ll see them soon. We’ll figure things out from there.”

Yeojin wonders, briefly, why they know that never talking about her family is perfectly fine with her, but dismisses it. She’s just going to answer any unanswerable questions she might have with “magic” from now on. It seems to usually be the solution. “What about Hyunjin’s cat? Can I do something like that?”

Heejin pauses. The frogs, almost in unison, stop croaking. Yeojin feels something hop onto her leg, but ignores it in favor of listening to Heejin. “If you find an animal, sure. It’s okay to be jealous of Hyunjin, though. She’s… lucky.”

Yeojin catches the hint of bitterness in Heejin’s voice. She remembers that the two of them share a room, and can’t help but wonder what’s going on there. 

Rooms.

There had been a cat on Hyunjin’s door, and a frog on hers.

She looks down to her leg. A small green frog sits there, and for a brief instant Yeojin has a craving for flies and sinking into mud, never to be seen again.

Heejin smiles at her. “So are you, I guess.” 

There’s no bitterness this time, just genuine joy, so Yeojin smiles back. “I sure hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *confusion intensifies*


	8. day eight - steampunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i KNOW how late this is im sorry, i'm working on the other chapters but i have to feed yall somehow

The gears on the door squeak unpleasantly as someone enters the shop. Vivi had oiled them yesterday- it seemed those gears just liked being  _ loud. _

“Hello, how may I help you?” she asks out of habit, looking up from her manga. As soon as she saw who it was, she freezes. This girl came in nearly every week, almost always looking to fix her phone. It was old, clunky, and broke easily. Vivi kept telling her to get a new one, but she never listened.

It occurs to her that she doesn’t know the girl’s name, which is probably really weird considering that at this point Vivi is half in love with her.

“Hi,” she says, putting her phone down on the desk. It’s horribly scratched up and looks like it’s been dropped off a building. Vivi physically cringes to look at it. “Can you fix this? I’m sorry to be in so many times.” This she punctuates with a wink.

Vivi examines it, professionalism taking over. “You should really just get a new one. They’re not that expensive these days, and it looks like the only thing this can do is break.”

She flicks her long, dark hair over her shoulder. “I don’t like buying new things. It feeds capitalism. And besides, it plays music very well. When it’s not broken.”

Vivi thinks that this is the most patently ridiculous excuse she’s heard, so she shrugs. “I can fix this. Do you mind me taking it overnight?” 

The girl shakes her head. “No, that’s fine. I’ll be here in two days,” she says, pulling out her wallet. Who even uses paper money anymore? She grins at Vivi, who finally lets professionalism break and blushes. “Passcode is 112817 if you need that, but I’ll change it afterwards.”

“Okay,” Vivi says, stammering a little bit. She waves away some of the money and says, “Usual price is fine.”

“Take a tip,” the girl says. “I insist.”

-

Vivi cleans up for the day and sighs, leaning on the counter. She runs the store entirely by herself, and being a mechanic would be a lot of work for one person if not for her enhancements.  _ You should replace your cheek panels,  _ the Voice insists.  _ They’re not supposed to show blushing. _

Vivi’s never been sure if the rest of Eden hears the Voice or if it’s just her. She’d never known her parents and had been raised by the state, and over the years the Voice- and, naturally, the technology- had become fond of her. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was the other way around- it really was a pain to have to fix herself along with everything else, and the Voice really didn’t like it when she spent hours internally panicking about the girl with the broken phone for a reason she couldn’t comprehend, but without the Voice she wouldn’t be thriving as much as she was. 

“I like the blushing,” she says out loud, even though the Voice would hear her if she’d just projected the thoughts to it. “It makes me feel human.”

_ That’s a bad thing, though,  _ the Voice insists.  _ To be human is to have weaknesses.  _

“I don’t see how blushing is going to put me in danger or whatever,” Vivi says. “It’s just a little embarrassing.”

_ But if that girl sees the blushing, then maybe she’ll realize that you’re… interested in her… and try to seduce you. That’s endangering you. _

“Who says ‘seduce’ these days?” Vivi mutters under her breath. “And besides, isn’t having a girl like you a good thing?” 

The Voice is pointedly silent. Vivi sighs. “I’ll adjust the color so that it’s less noticeable, okay? But I’m not getting rid of the blushing.”

_ Fine,  _ the Voice says.  _ Just make sure the new color looks good on you. _

Vivi feels it leave, and rolls her eyes to herself. Picking up the girl’s phone, she works on fixing it for the better part of an hour. Out of curiosity, she opens it, even though she knows how rude that is. The girl had been right- it really can’t do much but play music. Vivi can play music all the time without even needing headphones, courtesy of being mostly robotic, but, curious about the girl’s taste, she opens the app and selects the first song that comes on.  _ I love you, I need you,  _ the singer murmurs.

She decides that she likes the song. Maybe she’ll listen to it again later.

-

_ I’ve been thinking,  _ the Voice says the next day.  _ Why did you get your other robotic parts? _

“Because something wasn’t working,” Vivi answers dutifully. The real answer is probably somewhere along the lines of  _ because you thought I could use improvement,  _ but she doesn’t dare say that aloud. She’d been born with weak legs, so she’d gotten robotic replacements for those first- nearly identical to human legs but carved out of metal. Then she’d mysteriously gotten sick and had to replace her lungs, then her digestive system. Then the excuses for replacement started to get dodgy. She needed to do work without needing rest, so robotic arms. She needed to be prettier to draw in more customers, so facial panels. She needed to see better for fixing things, so eyes. There really wasn’t anything to connect it to anymore, so brain. 

The only thing she had left was her heart. Vivi knew it was silly and sentimental, that the heart didn’t provide any emotions, but she wanted to leave some part of her human.

_ Maybe,  _ the Voice continues,  _ it’s time to go fully robotic. You’re having feelings. _

“I don’t want to get rid of my heart. And that doesn’t deal with feelings anyway.”

_ But it’s weak,  _ it argues.  _ You could be immortal. Perfect. _

“Perfection is overrated,” says Vivi simply.

_ It’s like that girl who comes by. You always tell her to replace her phone, even though it’s so old- an Apple, really? but she doesn’t listen. She keeps it out of sentimental value and it does nothing for her. That’s like you and your heart. _

“No,” says Vivi, irritated. “That’s entirely different. The phone is not a part of her. It’s just something she uses. My heart is what makes me alive. Otherwise I’m just a moving object.”

_ You say that like it’s a bad thing,  _ the Voice mutters.  _ What are you going to do, leave? _

“Maybe,” Vivi snaps back, and with a pop the Voice vanishes.

-

With the time she has, she packs her bags and includes everything she’ll need to maintain herself. Food, because she likes it and it’s easily converted to fuel- books because maybe she’ll get bored. After a moment of thought, she takes apart the girl’s old phone and spends half the night making a hybrid of the old one and something new and useful. It’ll just look like she fixed it really well. She hopes. Vivi takes the remaining parts and cobbles them together into something capable of messaging and music. 

( _ I want you to want me,  _ that first song says. Whoever the rapper is, she has a nice voice.)

When she’s finally done, she steps outside and breathes in fresh air- who is she kidding, she doesn’t need to breathe. 

It’s vacation time. Because Vivi wants space from all these expectations, all the perfection she has to be, everything.

Maybe she’ll find something in the dark corners of Eden. Maybe she won’t.

Maybe she’s just so tired of this.

Vivi programs the second hybrid phone with a message and her number. Because hey, sometimes it’s nice not to give up her heart.

-

Sooyoung enters the shop cautiously. Nobody seems to be there.

“Hello?” she calls. “Vivi?” She’d gotten the name from her receipts. It’s a pretty one, she thinks- it fits the pink-haired mechanic.

There’s something on the desk that looks like her phone but better, and she opens it cautiously.

A message flashes on the screen.

I’LL BE BACK TOMORROW

(She isn’t.)

**Author's Note:**

> please leave criticism/questions/theories whatever in the comments and have a nice day!! happy spook season


End file.
